The Truth Behind the Matter
by Oreocat155338
Summary: After the Second Giant War, everyone thought Percy was fine. But that's a lie. This is the truth behind the matter
1. Part 1: Percy

Percy is one of the most powerful people to walk the face of the earth. He is loyal to friends unto death, and would fight anyone to protect them.

He is also one of the most emotionally fragile people on the earth. After his trip into Tartarus, Percy has had a growing fear of the dark, and he sleeps as little as possible, hoping to keep the nightmares away. Sudden, loud noises startle him, and no one can do a thing to calm him down anymore (except his mom).

When he saw the flames at the alter, he is reminded of the food that saved his and Annabeth's lives in Tartarus. The creek flowing through the woods cause flashback to the River of fire.

And every time he saw a janitor, or even just a broom, he was reminded of Bob and Damsean, who'd sacrificed their lives to get Percy and Annabeth out. Every time he used his powers, he is reminded of the time when he nearly killed Ankys.

His sword reminded him of how close he'd come to dying way too many times. The haunted looks in the Camper's eyes reminded him of how Annabeth had looked as they were escaping the Pit.

Every time they burned food, he was reminded of how the Campers saved his life in Tartarus without knowing it, and how he and Annabeth had made a note on a napkin to send them a message.

Every time he saw a monster he encountered in the Pit, he see's a glimpse of their very different appearence that he only ever saw in Tartarus. He could even see different forms of monsters that he hadn't seen in Tartarus, and the Mist had stopped working for him, revealing the truth of everything.

What kept Percy going was his friends. They could see something different aout him since his trip to the Pit, even though they couldn't figure out what exactly it was. His fatal flaw kept him from leaving. It kept him in the New York area, training new demigods.

Until the day he no longer had friends to give him a reason to live.


	2. Part 2: Nico

**A/N So, I'm seriously surprised I wasn't yelled at over how dark the last chapter was. I got two reviews since I posted the story, and both of them wanted more, so I'm assuming that they loved it. Anyways, Annabeth after this.**

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Only one person other than Percy truly understood what he'd seen down there, and it wasn't Annabeth.

It was Nico.

The Hades, Nico's father, was the god of the underworld, and since Tartarus was in the Underworld, Nico was able to see it much better than Annabeth or even Percy.

At least until Percy had sliced through the _aria_ , and taken so many curses upon himself that he nearly died.

The two had been friends before, but now they bonded over their time in the Pit, though they fell in at different times. In fact, Percy had gotten to the point where he was only ever serious around Nico, and sometimes Annabeth.

He still treated everyone with a level of respect, one that he thinks they earned, but he's much more reserved, so much more responsible.

And what scares Nico is that he's the only one who can see Percy's life going downhill, and there's nothing he can do about it. He'd learn to read souls - mainly so he could judge ghosts on what they'd done in life - but he'd subconsiciously done it on Percy one day, and it terrified him.

Percy yearned for death. He was so broken he just wanted to die.

But he couldn't.

Nico should have been happy that Percy would fight to live, but he knew (kind of) where Percy was, and, while Percy had plenty to live for (unlike Nico had had during his depressive state), he was miserable.

All because he didn't want his loved ones to be upset about his death. Athena had once told Percy that his fatal flaw would be his undoing, but Nico didn't think she'd thought it'd be quite like this.

It was driving Percy slowly downhill, and Nico knew he wanted out of it. But Nico respected Percy too much to abruptly stop his downward spiral, and he was the only person (probably) who knew what was going on.

Sure, a god would be able to help, but Percy had always tried to deal with his problems without inteference from the gods, and Nico didn't think it'd really help his cousin. Dionysus, being the god of madness, might have been the only one who could stop Percy from slowly growing crazy, had Nico told him.

Nico could see no way out. No way to save his cousin without the gods, and they didn't normally grant requests from demigods.

But, maybe, since it involved Percy, they would at least hear him out.


	3. Part 3: Annabeth (Warning: DARK)

**A/N Warning: Dark, very dark, read at your own risk**

 **Thank you to the three people who have reviewed (I seriously don't understand how I'm not getting yelled at for this story, but oh well).**

 **Please, tell me what you think about this chapter (once you finished reading it of course)**

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Annabeth Chase was one of the smartest people on the planet.

But she was also one of the most depressed.

After everything she'd been through, meeting Percy when they were twelve, knowing that if he was the half-blood the prophecy spoke of, he'd die. Getting close, no matter what she tried. Naviating the sea of monsters and holding the sky at thirteen. Getting lost in the Labrynith at fourteen, sharing their first kiss, losing Percy, getting him back, almost losing him again. Fighting to defend Manhattan - and Olympus - at sixteen, sharing their second kiss, and offically become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Losing him again at sixteen, and getting him back, only to embark on another life-threatening trip where she had to leave him behind for her solo-death quest. Seeing him again only for the two of them to fall right into hell, simply because he wouldn't let go of her. Spending his seventeenth birthday in hell, before finally closing the Doors of Death - from both sides - and returning to the real world, only to head to another battle where someone nearly died.

Then, when they'd finally made it to Athens, they'd nearly died yet again, and Gaea woke, they'd been Zeus-slapped all the way back to the States, where they'd fought another battle, where Campers had died, against monsters that'd been amassed around Camp. After the battle, they took on Gaea, and Leo had died as a result.

She was only seventeen, and she'd already witnessed at least a hundred deaths. She'd watched as Percy tortured a goddess with a power that she'd never known he had, she'd been to the depths of hell, and she could feel Percy slipping through her fingers.

She could already hear his scream when he found out what happened. But she wanted him to have a few more hours of peace. The Campers and Chiron were giving her space, so she wasn't expected for a while longer. She grabbed a pen, and looked around, before writing on a piece of paper.

 _I'm sorry._

She looked down at the item in her hand, and with a quick breath, she let go.

 _"Annabeth!"_


	4. I'm Sorry

Guys, I'm sorry.

Originally I was just going to pause these fics for the summer because I wasn't going to be on my computer then school started back up and I realized that I'd lost the thing that I keep all of these fics on.

There are one or two I can continue without it, mainly because I didn't write up anything else up on them, and I could start from stratch (and to be honest, I have NO idea where that's going).

But the rest I had several chapters planned and now without the information I have nothing to go over for myself, much less all of you.

I'll try to continue some of these where I left off, but it'll be hard after so long without really thinking about the fics and little to no idea about where I was going with them.

I'm not just asking for your forgiveness, I'm also asking for patience.

And please let me know via the reviews which story you'd like me to focus on.

~Oreo out


	5. Part 4: Hermes

**A/N So I wasn't going to update this for a while, but then a lovely commenter -you know who you are - and a re-reading of the story gave me inspiration.**

 **Oregionally I was going to do Nico's POV again, but I think this works so much better.**

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Hermes was a thief.

As a thief and messenger, he had access to information others thought hidden from him.

So it was he, out of all the gods - Dionysus excluded, possibly - who wasn't surprised to see Nico turn up, asking for help for Annabeth and Percy.

And he was glad someone had finally come for help - they could finally intervene.

He reached for their minds as Nico spoke - as he argued with Zeus, claiming Percy's problems as their own. After all, Percy's fatal flaw was loyalty and if the madness should turn Percy against them, he could be more dangerous than Gaea. Worse than Kronos.

And just as Nico finished speaking, Hermes saw - heard, _felt_ \- Annabeths message.

If they did nothing this would be the final straw for Percy. If anything short of losing all of his friends could turn him against them, then it would be this. His eyes darted up and he spoke before anyone else got the chance to-

"Since you've officially asked for help for them, I suppose we should get to camp." He knew he sounded worried, and rather than answer questions - why were they stalling, they knew he had a better grasp, a better knowledge of what was going on at any given time with this curse of his - he grabbed Apollos arm and teleported them to Camp Half-Blood.

They needed to save Annabeth, or they would lose his favorite demigod cousin in the process.

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 **So this 'curse' is the fact that Hermes, as the Messenger God, would hear EVERY SINGLE message- sent or not - including suicide notes.**

 **It would also make sense if he could also read thoughts, but I don't think a situation will come up where he'll need/use that power, but idk where it's gonna wind up going, so...**

 **But read and review and tell me how you think, and I'm sorry for the long delay!**

 **~ Oreo out**


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